SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – The Boulder-Arrowhead All-Stars are one win away from the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Penn.
B-A won Thursday’s undefeated semifinal 5-2 over Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, at the Northwest Regional in San Bernardino, Cali.
Idaho opened the scoring in the top of the third inning. With the bases loaded and nobody out, Montana starter Drew McDowell threw a wild pitch that allowed Nolan Christ to come home from third for a 1-0 lead. Later in the inning, Idaho’s Avrey Cherry scored from third on a squeeze bunt. Montana threw to first for the out, but Cherry slid under the relay throw back to the plate.
Boulder-Arrowhead responded immediately in the bottom of the third. With two on and two outs, Josh Sears flared one to right that skipped past the diving Idaho outfielder. Both runs scored to tie the game at 2-2. Jakob Wilcox then doubled to left to score Sears giving Montana its first lead at 3-2.
The Billings 11-12-year-old All-Stars took advantage of two Idaho errors in the bottom of the fifth and tacked on another pair of runs for a 5-2 lead.
Idaho made it interesting in its final at-bat placing runners at second and third with only one out. But B-A reliever Cooper Freitag, who entered in the top of the fifth, caught the next batter looking then induced a ground-out to Cade Tyson at shortstop to clinch the win.
Boulder-Arrowhead will play in Saturday’s 1 p.m. Northwest Regional championship against Friday’s winner between Idaho and Oregon.
